Climate in a Time of Conflict
IN PRODUCTION UKRAINE: Yahodyn, Kyiv, Chornobyl, Mikolaiv, Odessa, Sumy,Trostianets,Zaporizhzhia
A documentary
War removes the illusion
that someone else will solve the problem.
Climate in a Time of Conflict looks at adaptation, resilience and transformation as fundamental responses to the conflict in Ukraine, and how these responses can be lessons and inspiration to the rest of the world. These three pillars have guided the country in successfully repelling invasion, while at the same time building systems that address conflict and climate.
This is a story of action and planning, but more importantly, it is a story of the social fabric of a country. Here, beauty, tragedy, destruction, innovation and reconstruction continue to play out against a savage backdrop.
The effects of a changing climate were being felt in Ukraine before the war and will continue long after the war is over. Exploring how Ukraine is addressing these issues can act as both lesson and inspiration to a 1st world order held back by its own comforts.
Climate, financial, social or political security cannot exist without food security.
Agriculture is high on the list of
demining priorities
Triaging survival
As Ukraine fights a brutal war, its scientists are confronting another frontline — the accelerating climate crisis that both predates and amplifies the conflict.
The invasion has generated emissions comparable to those of entire nations, destroyed civilian energy infrastructure, and left reconstruction itself poised to produce nearly a quarter of total wartime emissions.
Yet amid bombardment and blackouts, climatologist Dr Svitlana Krakovska argues that fossil fuel dependence fuels both aggression and global heating.
Adaptation
When the abnormal becomes the normal
Change is constant. Adaptation is life's response, shaping which species endure and which fade.
Humanity is no different. Our behavior is driven by consequence and opportunity, and adaptation is how we respond. Throughout history, periods of crisis have repeatedly accelerated innovation, overcoming the inertia of comfort, short-term profit, and political hesitation.
War is perhaps the starkest example.
While its human cost is immeasurable, it also forces rapid solutions to problems long considered too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient to address. In Ukraine today, that urgency is driving innovations in energy, infrastructure, and resilience that offer lessons extending far beyond the battlefield.
Adaptation is inevitable. The only question is whether we adapt proactively through foresight, or reactively through crisis.
What remains is endured
Just as day becomes night, Kyiv adapts to the ever changing realities of a country at war. It has no choice.
Risk policy strategist Anna Ackermann helps cities rebuild with decentralized renewables and climate-proof design.
And at Chernobyl, radiation & soil scientist Dr Kateryna Shavanova studies land already marked by invisible catastrophe - reminding us that environmental damage does not end when headlines fade.
From solar microgrids keeping hospitals alive, to digital systems guiding land rehabilitation, this film follows the people redefining resilience under fire.
These are just a few of the many scientists, innovators and visionaries we connected with during our ongoing production in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, climate action is not a distant ideal, but a matter of resilience, sovereignty, survival, and the shape of peace to come.
Past, present & future
To understand Ukraine today, it helps to understand its past.
In his 1905 book The Life of Reason, George Santayana wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,". It may be true, but that’s easier said than done when you are a land rich in resources and eyed by ruthless neighbors.
This is a nation that has repeatedly endured invasion, famine, war, and catastrophe. In 1240, Mongol armies destroyed Kyiv and slaughtered its people. In 1932, Stalin's man-made famine—the Holodomor—killed an estimated four million people and World War II claimed around eight million more. And then… the Russians returned
Today, on a summer's afternoon in Kyiv, cafés are busy, parks are full, and families go about their daily lives. It is a city living between moments of normality, but under the constant possibility of drones and missile attacks. To an outsider, the calm can seem surreal or extraordinary. To Ukrainians, this is a part of their history and their DNA.
Santayana also wrote ‘only the dead have seen the end of the war’. But for today, the sun is out, at least the lucky ones, and the focus is on living, rather than the wars of angry old men.
The world news presents a staple diet of destruction. Ukrainian news is violent news. It's what we've come to expect, and in so doing, we no longer react as we once did. But the real cost is not only what is destroyed, it is what is endured. The population has no choice but to carry on.
Militarization and survival permeate every aspect of life.
Calculating the carbon cost
In just four years, the war in Ukraine has generated over 300 million tons of carbon emissions - roughly the the annual footprint of an industrial nation like France. Finding detailed data is a challenge due to the nature of war. But these are some of the main categories of CO2 contributors.